Posted by Mike Barraclough on February 12, 2018, 10:55 am, in reply to "Re: PIRATE GOLD"

I don't enjoy conspiracy theories as they usually ignore the basic principle that correlation does not imply causation and use language to suggest things are true when there is no proof.

John says "For example I could never understand how on earth anyone could have financed RNI or indeed why they would risk doing so in the political climate that existed at the time." so lets look at the RNI chapter, by far the worst in my opinion provocatively named Red Signals trying to lead you to a conclusion before you've even read it.

Ian Anderson who worked on the Mebo2 posting on this board April 2015

"There is this great fantasy that RNI was this elaborately equipped hi-tech radio station, but most of it was hardly broadcast standard. A mixed bunch of second-hand transmitters, cast-offs if you like. Domestic audio equipment: the Tandberg foil stop 3.75 ips cart machines they started with I had for a simple disco two years before and unbalanced Revox domestic tape recorders. Only the EMT turntables could be regarded as professional. As for the rest of the ship, well some basic enthusiast HF receivers, teleprinters and RTTY decoders. Great spy equipment? Well good for Stampa Radio and AFP. Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Eva's nick-names) were Swiss anoraks and neutral Swiss do business with anyone, the comrades and the dictators, they don't spy."

Why is the RCA 105kw transmitter described as "specially built" by RCA. It was a 1961 transmitter of which only 3 or 4 were made and the owner wanted to sell as it wasn't a successful design. Why are 10kw shortwave transmitters described as "powerful" He states they caused "concern in high places". Why should I believe this just because he says so?

Veronica did not pay RNI to stay off the air as I've posted before. There was no bribe. In 1971 Bull Verwey wanted the ship towed into port without risk or violence. It was advertising manager Norbert Jurgens and/or the divers who changed the plan to involve starting a fire on board. This was because they were transmitting in Dutch, a breach of the contract made with Veronica in late 1969 when they approached them for a loan, which was granted, due to them running out of money, largely due to the work already done on the Angela thus being unable to pay the shipyard bill for fitting out the Mebo 2. That is why in December 1969 Mebo publicly announced that Radio Veronica would not have to worry about them as they would never broadcast in Dutch.

After they ran out of money again in 1970 they got a further loan and Veronica put their own captain on the ship which was collateral on the original loan. As Brian Lister says Meister and Bollier later tricked the captain off the ship, they thought they had an agreement with Radio Marina to broadcast to Belgium, and when Bull Verwey and others from Veronica sailed out they stood with pistols on the deck. Hence the 1971 lawsuit after RNI retook the ship, originally said to be for piracy on the high seas, changed to breach of contract. The judge said he couldn't enforce anything to do with actions in international waters as it was outside his juridistiction. RNI lawyers claimed in court that Radio Veronica had approached them in 1969 in order to start an English service off the UK coast but that sounds unlikely. So both sides agree that there was a 1969 contract. All of this was also reported at the time in the Dutch publication Pirate Radio News and I reprinted much of it in World DX Club Contact. See this Soundscapes interview with Bull Verwey, similar to his interview in Offshore Echo's. http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME03/Bull_Verweij.shtml

Bull Verweij in one of the linked articles about Lister's claim, actually an assertion from Paul Harris, about BVD involvement in the firebombing. "That's the biggest nonsense I've ever heard of, the divers have only acted on our behalf, and the BVD has not been involved in any way whatsoever.

"Andy Archer, say they were aware of strange coded overnight transmissions." These were communications between the engineers on the ship and Zurich as Hans Knot taped them.

From one of the linked articles about the De Telegraaf story:

"They (MEBO) also demanded a complete publication of a letter from Andy Archer, which had been sent to the press - including the De Telegraaf - and in which Archer stated that he had no proof at all of the alleged activities and that De Telegraaf had published the story "inflated" . It never came to a decision and therefore nothing came of a publication of the letter" Andy said as recently as the 2015 Ekrath Radio Day that the spy ship story was nonsense

"The continued broadcasts of Radio Noordzee in Dutch and RNI in English were also an embarrassment to the western security services who were pretty clear on who was ultimately responsible for funding the operations." Assertion without proof. There are more. Will be afk for a couple of days but a few more assertions in the book I can challenge. None of this is difficult for anyone writing a book claiming that it will tell the "real story" of offshore radio to research.